IceChat IRC Client

Welcome to the IceChat Web site. IceChat is a popular IRC (Internet Relay Chat) Client that can be used in Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista and also Windows 7. It has been tested on 64bit versions of XP, Vista and Windows 7 as well. IceChat is a very user friendly program that can be setup in a matter of a minutes. IceChat is capable of connecting to multiple servers and channels all at once, with ease, so you can easily chat with your friends in your favorite channels.

For those people that wish to do more then just chat with IceChat, there are numerous different ways to customize the look and feel of IceChat. It starts with simply changing a theme, to writing your own scripts and making your own custom popups, using the IceChat Editor. The built-in VBS (Visual Basic Scripting) script engine is powerful and can be made to do just about anything, and even allowing users to create their own activeX dll's for advanced scripting solutions.

IceChat has some unique features that set it apart from other similar programs. Most users truly enjoy the built in Emoticons. But for those select few that do not, this feature can be disabled. The Favorite Server Tree is truly fantastic, and because IceChat is built around its multi-server capabilities, it is an essential part of IceChat that makes it that much easier to use.

IceChat was first being developed in 2000, and has gone through many changes in its interface, design, and of course its many features. it is currently in the stage of a total re-write and a Beta version should be available in the early part of 2010.

IceChat is FreeWare, meaning anyone can use it, at no cost.

The main IceChat Support channel is located on Quakenet (irc.quakenet.org) in the #icechat channel. The IceChat 2009 Support channel is located on Quakenet in the #icechat2009 channel.

This web site was started November 11, 2003, and most recently updated in May 2010.
The forums remain with the SMF system, and the main website is using Wordpress.

Well, it has been a long process of many differenent code updates, changes, head aches, what have you. But IceChat has now been in development for 10 years.

I started IRC’ing roughly about 1997. It was a long  time ago, in any case. I started because my best friend told me about it.  We used to run BBS’s together for many years, and quite enjoyed chatting with other people online the multiline local BBS’s. But it was rather limited, and by the late 1990′s, BBS’s were starting to die in lieu of the Internet.  So I gave it a try, and I did not like it at all. But I think it was because of the program I was using, I just didn’t get it. So about a year later, I gave it a try again, and got hooked. I started out on Dalnet, but soon found Undernet, and frequented a few channels there, mainly #vb and #cars. It was not long before I realized all the politics involved in IRC, channel administration, and such. And I was hooked, to say the least. To this day, I still sit on Undernet in the #vb channel, as a channel admin.

After about 2 years, I started complaining about the current client I was using to some fellow IRC’ers on Undernet, saying it lacked some important features I wanted. I had tried many various clients, and there were a fair amount back then (2000) but one thing I really saw lacking, was good, easy support for connecting to multiple servers. Sure, there may have been ways to do it, but it did not make it very easy nor intuitive. And forget about keeping seperate settings for each different server, that was next to non-existant.

And of course, being a developer, it kind of intrigued my curiosity. But I had never made an application like this before, my specialty was creating database driven apps (like MS Access/Jet) and building applications really specialized for specific clients, not available to the public.

So someone basically dared me, saying, let’s see if you can make something better. So, I thought, yes, why not. That was the end of August 2000.  This shouldn’t take me too long. Boy oh boy, I had it coming. It really took me a couple of years of fiddling around with it before I really started to get a handle on what I was doing with the client, to get good direction with it. But I never released my program out to the real world for about 1 1/2 years, because simply put, it was not good enough. So I just distributed it out to some friends, and got suggestions on what to do, and went from there.

Well, I tell you now, I NEVER thought I would be still doing this 10 years later.  But here we are, 10 years later, the client is more popular then it has ever been, and even though the brand new version is taking longer then I anticipated to release, it is still being worked  on.

Also, I ran my own IRC Server for IceChat, so I could just connect and flood it out testing the client, and not bother anyone. I actually had gotten K-Lined from Dalnet for connecting way to many times with ‘invalid clients’, they thought I was some kind of a rogue bot. I explained to them that I was simply testing out a brand new IRC Client I was developing, and they told me to go elsewhere. So I thought the easiest thing to do was create my own server. The first few versions of IceChat connected to my server initially, and I decided to put my own official #icechat support channel on my own server.

Then in 2003, I had found out on QuakeNet there was a large #icechat channel there run by some people there. It was actually a larger channel then on my own server. So I started to frequent that channel more, and it was about 1 or 2 months later, that my IRC server was DDOS’ed, so I decided to take it down, and move the official #icechat support channel to QuakeNet in November 2003. And the channel is still there as of today.

For more information about the history of the development of IceChat, please visit the Screenshots/History Section

Some more DCC functions added, passive dcc pretty functional for incoming. New binary added as well on CodePlex for all those wanting to update to this version.

Alpha 14.4 released today, add more DCC File Receiving support, and starting of Auto-Resume. May still have some errors, but it is a good start.

A new binary install should be released when the majority of the DCC Send/Receive featured are added.

With more fixes, and DCC File Receiving added, we make another step forward.
If a File exists when receiving a file, it will automatically add a (1), (2) , etc to the end of the file name.

Also added a couple more DCC options in the IceChat Options window, default File Receving/Sending folders, and a place to put your IP Address if the client can not automatically detect it on connection.

Read the full change log for any further information.

http://www.icechat.net/site/icechat-2009/icechat-2009-changelog/

Today we have released IceChat 2009 Alpha 14.2. More fixes and additions, working Buddy List, added sounds for some events, among other small fixes.

Visit http://icechat.codeplex.com to get the latest source code or full install, as well as the the latest changelog.

Thanks to everyone for your continued patience with all the changes, fixes, and the few bugs that come along the way.